Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Posted on: 31st December, 2013

HRANA News Agency – Mehdi Mousavi and Fatemeh Ekhtesari, the post-modern poets are under arrest since 24 days ago.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), these 2 poets were banned from leaving the country last November and were summoned to the Evin court where they have been arrested on December 7, 2013.

A close source to their families told HRANA’s reporter: “We know that the IRGC intelligence has arrested them and they are kept in ward 2-A. They have had the permission to call home only once and very shortly.”

Mehdi Mousavi had been arrested in summer 2010 when some reports were published by YJC about him and his weblog was banned.

Fatemeh Ekhtesari, the editor of the post-modern sonnet journal named as “it was tomorrow” has gone into stadium in clothing like a boy in the football match between Iran and South Korea which caused several reactions toward her.

An Indian salesman who got into an argument while trying to reach a bargain with Saudi customers died in hospital in the Central Province on Saturday evening.Fifty-four-year-old Abdul Samad, an expatriate from Kerala in India and working as a salesman in an electronic and electrical appliance shop in the old souk in Majamah town on Qassim Road, was pronounced dead at King Khaled Hospital where he was being treated for shock.Some Saudi youth had come to Abdul Samad’s shop to purchase an electrical heater during lunch hour. His 13-year-old son, Sultan studying in Majamah International Indian School, was in the shop when the incident occurred. In the absence of Abdul Samad, an argument between the customers and Sultan ensued over the price of the electrical heater which quickly turned violent with Sultan sustaining injuries. Hearing the noise, Abdul Samad ran into the shop to rescue his bleeding son, but he was also attacked. Although he was not hurt, the shock of the attack led to health issues and he was rushed to hospital.“Abdul Samad died after four days of being admitted to the King Khaled Hospital,” a resident told Arab News.

Riyadh police have arrested a Filipino driver for killing his Saudi sponsor.Police spokesman Brig. Nasser Al-Qahtani said the crime took place at about 4 p.m. on Sunday. Sulaimaniya police were informed by telephone that a 56-year-old Saudi had been killed.Preliminary investigation pointed the needle of suspicion at his Filipino driver because the two were not on good terms following a conflict.The Filipino had run away from the scene after committing the crime.“Security officers were able to catch him within a few hours,” Al-Qahtani said.Meanwhile, security officers are looking for a young Saudi man for allegedly attacking Saudi Telecom’s customer service office in Muzahamiya, west of Riyadh, on Sunday.Informed sources told an online newspaper that the man was holding a gun and had broken the office’s glass door. He had also threatened the office staff. The man’s father told police that he did not know where his son was hiding

The incident took placeonkilometer 4+800theMorelia-Salamancaroadopposite of thepetrolversion ofSanta Fe.Asa family, J.CarmenRodríguezoriginatingTzitzio, went to thecity ofMoreliaforthesale of a car, buyingwould be doneright on the spot, he was killedby a group ofmen and thrownfroma moving vehicle.The suspects are not known at this time , and the investigation is still active.

JERUSALEM: Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners Tuesday as part of US-brokered peace talks ahead of Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest visit to the region.The release prompted elation among Palestinians, who welcomed the prisoners back into the West Bank and Gaza Strip after they had spent two to three decades in Israeli jails.But as Kerry geared up for his 10th visit since March, an anticipated announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of further settlement construction — designed to appease hard-liners — looked set again to undermine the talks.

Kerry, expected to arrive Wednesday, has been pressing the two sides to agree on a framework for a final peace agreement ahead of an agreed late April target date for the talks to conclude.The prisoners were the third batch of 104 detainees that Netanyahu pledged to release in four stages when the peace talks were revived in July. All were imprisoned before the 1993 Oslo accords, which officially launched the Middle East peace process.Palestinians hailed the freed prisoners as heroes imprisoned for fighting against the Israeli occupation, with some welcomed back to Ramallah in the West Bank, others to east Jerusalem and the remainder into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.The 18 men taken to Ramallah were warmly embraced by the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in his presidential compound before laying flowers on the grave of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.Abbas pledged to the prisoners and their exuberant families that “there would be no final agreement (with Israel) until all prisoners were in their homes.”The Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza hailed the prisoner release, but reiterated its rejection of the peace talks and slammed the notion that freeing prisoners justified Israeli settlement expansion.“The release of any prisoner is a gain for our people,” Gaza’s Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya told a news conference in the besieged Palestinian territory.“But we reject negotiating with the occupation (Israel) and we do not accept that settlements should be expanded in exchange for that.”Netanyahu criticized the heroes’ welcome given to the released prisoners, who had served 19 to 28 years for killing Israeli civilians or soldiers.“While we are prepared to take very painful steps in an effort to try and reach an agreement ... they, along with their highest leadership, are celebrating,” he told a conference in the northern Israeli town of Tiberias.“Murderers are not heroes,” Netanyahu said.Tuesday’s release was expected to be accompanied by the announcement of new construction plans for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, as the previous two prisoner releases were.Such a move is likely to infuriate the Palestinians and the international community, providing a further challenge for Kerry, whose intense shuttle diplomacy managed to revive the talks after a three-year hiatus.The pressure on Netanyahu to make such an announcement comes both from within his own coalition government — the housing minister lives in a West Bank settlement and hard-liners oppose any peace talks — and from the Israeli public.Kerry will also have to quell tensions that rose after an Israeli ministerial committee on Sunday gave initial approval to a bill annexing Jordan Valley settlements, a largely symbolic move expected to be shot down by the government.A poll conducted by Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said Tuesday that 63 percent of Israelis and 53 percent of Palestinians supported a two-state solution.Around 41 percent of some 600 Israeli respondents said the Jewish state should “yield” to any US pressure to accept a two-state solution, but 43 percent were against.The prisoner release, shortly after 0000 GMT, came after an Israeli court rejected a last-minute appeal by victims’ families.The families had especially protested the release of the five east Jerusalem prisoners, which they said contradicted a committment made by Netanyahu.

Reports from Iran indicate that five Christian converts from a house-church in eastern Tehran were arrested during a Christmas celebration. Iranian Christian converts face constant restrictions and persecution.

According to Mohabat News, Iranian security authorities raided a house, owned by Mr. Hosseini, where a group of Christians had gathered to celebrate Christmas on Tuesday, December 24. They arrested Mr. Hosseini , Ahmad Bazyar, Faegheh Nasrollahi, Mastaneh Rastegari, and Amir-Hossein Ne'matollahi.

The report received by Mohabat News stated: "These Christians had gathered to worship and celebrate birth of Jesus."

The Committee of Human Rights Reporters reported that armed plain-clothes security officers raided the house-church, insulted and searched those in attendance, thoroughly searched the house and seized all Christian books, CDs, and laptops they found. They also took the Satellite TV receiver.

The authorities also searched a neighboring house , because those present were observing the raid. They insulted and beat the father of the family and warned them not to speak with anyone about what they had witnessed.

There is still no update about the whereabouts or condition of these arrested Christians.

In recent years the authorities have intensified their pressure and threats against Christians around Christmas, and increased their surveillance of churches.

Many Christian converts have been arrested or faced other persecution around Christmas in recent years. A large number of Christian converts were arrested in Tehran in the past few years as part of pre-organized attacks by government authorities.

TEGUCIGALPA – A drive-by shooting at a bar in the northern city of San Pedro Sula left four women dead, Honduran police said Monday.

Three of the women were pronounced dead at the scene, while the fourth died later at a hospital, a brief official statement said.

A fifth woman wounded in the attack remains hospitalized, authorities said, but they offered no information on her condition.

The shooting occurred around 12:30 a.m. Monday in the El Benque neighborhood of San Pedro Sula, Honduras’ second city.

The women may have been killed for refusing to pay extortion money to a gang, according to unofficial accounts. Protection rackets are a major source of income for youth gangs in Central America.

Honduras suffered 85.5 homicides for every 100,000 residents in 2012, compared with a global median rate of 8.8 murders per 100,000, the Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University said in a study released in February.

Monday, December 30, 2013

At least 15 Palestinians have died of hunger since September in a besieged refugee camp in the Syrian capital Damascus, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees told AFP on Monday.“Reports have come in over the weekend that at least five Palestinian refugees in the besieged refugee camp of Yarmuk in Damascus have died because of malnutrition, bringing the total number of reported cases to 15,” UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness told AFP.He warned of a deteriorating situation in the camp, where some 20,000 Palestinians are trapped, with limited food and medical supplies.“Since September 2013 we have been unable to enter the area to deliver desperately needed relief supplies,” Gunness said.“The continued presence of armed groups that entered the area at the end of 2012 and its closure by government forces have thwarted all our humanitarian efforts.”Most of the Yarmuk camp in southern Damascus is under the control of the armed opposition, and it has been under a siege by troops loyal to President Bashar Assad for around a year.The blockade has resulted in a humanitarian crisis, and the exodus of tens of thousands of the camp’s 170,000 residents.On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights NGO reported five people in the camp had died of malnutrition, including an elderly man, a disabled man and a woman.UNRWA chief Filippo Grandi addressed the situation earlier this month, warning that conditions in Yarmuk had “progressively deteriorated.”“If this situation is not addressed urgently, it may be too late to save the lives of thousands of people including children,” he warned.Gunness said UNRWA was calling “all parties to immediately heed their legal obligations and facilitate the urgent provision of humanitarian assistance to Yarmuk and other Palestinian refugee camps.”Syria is officially home to nearly 500,000 Palestinian refugees, around half of whom have been displaced by the deadly conflict that broke out in March 2011, becoming refugees for a second time.More than 126,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict

BEIJING – Eight attackers died Monday in a clash with police in the remote northwestern region of Xinjiang, where tensions between Chinese authorities and the native Uighur people have been on the rise.

The confrontation occurred around 6:30 a.m. in Yarkand, near the traditional Uighur center of Kashgar, government Web site Tianshan News said.

Nine people armed with knives and explosive devices attacked a police contingent, setting at least one vehicle on fire.

The police opened fire and killed eight of the assailants and the ninth attacker was taken into custody, Tianshan said.

Two police and 14 militants died earlier this month in a similar incident on the outskirts of Kashgar.

Authorities blamed that clash on bands who “promote religious extremism in Xinjiang,” an apparent reference to the mainly Muslim Uighurs.

Sixteen people died in a battle between Uighurs and Chinese security forces in Kashgar just four days before the start of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008.

The following year, more than 200 were killed amid fighting between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.

The Uighurs, a Turkic people, complain that China is seeking to suppress their culture and religion and that Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang favor Han Chinese settlers.

China, meanwhile, seeks to portray Uighur militancy as a facet of international Islamic terrorism.

MEXICO CITY – A baby was born in a patrol car while officers rushed the mother to a hospital in Tlaxcala, a state in central Mexico, the Federal Police said.

Officers spotted an automobile that had broken down on the Tlalpan-Apizaco stretch of the Mexico City-Zacatepec National Highway and stopped to help the motorist.

Officers approached the vehicle and saw a man and a woman inside, the Federal Police said in a statement.

The woman, identified as Maria Blanca Carrillo Sanchez, was in labor and the driver, Alejandro Ramos Ramirez, asked the officers for help.

The officers moved the woman into the patrol car and headed for the nearest hospital.

“During the trip, the woman gave birth in Radio Patrol Car 12826 of the Federal Police, and the officers provided the needed first aid and kept the mother and child stabilized until they reached the Regional Hospital in Apizaco, Tlaxcala,” the law enforcement agency said.

The mother and newborn were taken away by medical personnel at the hospital’s entrance and are being treated by doctors, the Federal Police said.

The Federal Police Academy in San Luis Potosi trains officers in first aid and paramedic skills, the federal law enforcement agency said.

Another deadly blast has rocked the Russian city of Volgograd, killing at least 14 people aboard a trolleybus during today's morning commute. The explosion comes a day after a suicide bombing in the city killed at least 17 people and injured more than 40.
The explosions raised concerns about terrorism six weeks before Russia hosts the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
At least 14 people died in the trolleybus explosion and at least 28 people injured, according to the Russian Health Ministry. A 5- to 7-month-old baby suffered multiple head injuries and was unlikely to survive, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said. The baby's gender has not been disclosed.
A total of 27 people are in hospitals, including three children, Skvortsova said. The condition of most patients is "from relatively satisfactory to moderately severe," she added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the National Anti-Terrorist Committee to tighten security measures across Russia, with the additional measures in Volgograd.
The White House condemned the attacks and offered its "deepest condolences to the families of the victims" before saying the U.S. government would "welcome the opportunity for closer cooperation for the safety of the athletes, spectators, and other participants" at the upcoming Sochi Olympics.
U.S. officials have said that Russian cooperation on anti-terror strategy for the Olympics "could be better," according to an analysis written by Homeland Security Policy Institute Director Frank Cilluffo and LAPD Deputy Chief of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau Michael Downing and featured on ABCNews.com today.

BAALBEK, Lebanon: The Lebanese army used its air defense systems against Syrian helicopters on Monday after they carried out a raid inside Lebanese territory, a military source told AFP. It was the first time the Lebanese army has responded to Syrian attacks on its territory, which have multiplied as the conflict in its eastern neighbor has intensified, the source said.“In accordance with the orders of the army command, anti-aircraft guns were fired in the direction of Syrian helicopters that bombed Khirbet Dawud near Arsal,” in the area near the Syrian border, the source told AFP.“It is the first time that the Lebanese army has used its anti-aircraft defense systems” to respond to Syrian raids, the source added. Lebanese officials reported no casualties from the Syrian raid. It was not clear whether the retaliatory fire had hit the Syrian aircraft. The Lebanese army has in the past threatened to respond to cross-border fire from Syria but has not previously done so. On June 12, it issued a rare warning to the Syrian government, saying it would respond “immediately” to any new “violation” after a raid by the army on the Arsal area, a hub of support for the rebels, which is also home to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. But it had not previously carried out its threat, despite repeated spillovers from the fighting over the border. The anti-aircraft fire came a day after Lebanese President Michel Sleiman announced that Saudi Arabia had pledged $3 billion for the under-equipped army to buy French weapons. Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah militia, which controls much of the border region apart from the mainly Sunni Arsal district, is a leading ally of the Syrian regime. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have denounced the Assad regime for waging war against Syria's Sunni population

DHAKA: Security forces and opposition activists clashed in Bangladesh’s capital, leaving at least one person dead, as thousands of police took to the streets to foil a mass rally calling on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to cancel upcoming elections.Hasina’s rival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was expected to address the rally later Sunday in defiance of a government ban on large political gatherings. Reports said authorities had detained hundreds of people in a crackdown ahead of next weekend’s elections, further deepening the impoverished South Asian nation’s political crisis.

Security officials surrounded Zia’s home in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan area, where most foreign embassies are located, and parked sand-laden trucks in an apparent effort to obstruct Zia from leaving her home. Police denied that the measures were taken to stop her from joining the rally.Zia attempted to come out of her home, but police built a barricade that prevented her from getting to her car. TV video showed an angry Zia condemning Hasina’s government, saying, “Stop this.”Meanwhile, thousands of security forces, mainly police, tried to prevent the activists from rallying.A 21-year-old student was killed in Dhaka’s Malibagh area when security officials fired rubber bullets to disperse the activists, said police official Mozammel Haque. Witnesses said the violence broke out after a group of activists from the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party began marching in the streets.Stick-wielding ruling party supporters chased stone-throwing opposition activists on the premises of the Supreme Court. Witnesses said dozens of people were injured in that violence.Public transportation in Dhaka was suspended, cutting the capital off from the rest of the country. The opposition blamed police for preventing buses and other vehicles from traveling to the city. Traffic was thin on Dhaka’s usually clogged streets, with many people staying home in fear of violence.Local media reported that more than 650 people had been detained since Friday as part of a nationwide crackdown ahead of the Jan. 5 elections, which the opposition is boycotting. Opposition parties said those detained are their activists, but police said they were taken in on specific charges to prevent acts of sabotage.The opposition insists Hasina should resign and hand over power to an independent caretaker to oversee the polls. Hasina has rejected the demand and vowed to go ahead with the elections.Sunday’s rally was seen as the last major attempt by the opposition to derail the election, but the protest was unlikely to succeed because of the government’s hard-line approach.More than 150 people have died in political violence in Bangladesh since the crisis intensified in October. The conflict pits an opposition alliance led by Zia’s opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party against Hasina, who accuses Zia of protecting people being tried or convicted of war crimes involving the nation’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.Jamaat-e-Islami, the main partner of Zia’s party, wants the government to halt the war crimes trials of its leaders. Zia says the trials initiated by Hasina are politically motivated to weaken the opposition, an allegation the government has denied. Jamaat-e-Islami is banned from taking part in the election.Many citizens are frustrated by the raging chaos in Bangladesh, which is struggling to overcome poverty, establish democracy and increase per capita income.“Too much blood has been spilled in these past many weeks. We demand a stop to such bloodletting,” Dhaka’s Daily Star newspaper said in an editorial Sunday.Businesses have also expressed their concern, saying the conflict is affecting the country’s progress in the manufacturing sector, including a burgeoning garment industry that earns more than $20 billion a year from exports

BEIRUT: Regime airstrikes on the northern Syrian province of Aleppo have killed at least 517 people since Dec. 15, including 151 children, a monitor said on Sunday.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a string of regime aerial attacks on the province, including second city Aleppo, with raids using explosives-packed barrels, had also killed 46 women.At least 46 opposition fighters, including 34 rebels and 12 jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, but the majority of the dead were civilians, the Observatory said.Recent weeks have seen a relentless aerial campaign targeting towns and villages across Aleppo province.On Saturday, helicopters dropped TNT-packed barrels on a vegetable market and next to a hospital in Aleppo city, killing at least 25 civilians, including children.The Britain-based Observatory, strongly condemned the raids, and urged the international community to intervene. “The Observatory considers all those who remain silent in the international community as complicit in the massacres that have been committed and continue to be committed by the Syrian regime,” it said.Meanwhile, the leader of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party Nigel Farage said Sunday that Britain should take in Syrian refugees. The comments are unexpected from Farage, who has led opposition to the lifting of limits on migrants from Bulgaria and Romania on January 1, 2014.British Prime Minister David Cameron’s government has rejected calls from the UN and rights groups to resettle some of the most vulnerable of the estimated 2.3 million people who have fled the Syrian war.“I think refugees are a very different thing to economic migration and I think that this country should honour the spirit of the 1951 declaration on refugee status that was agreed,” Farage told the BBC.

Mourners carry the coffin of Yasser Faisal al-Jumaili, who was killed on assignment in Syria, at his funeral in Falluja, Iraq, on December 8. (Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani)

This year, CPJ researchers confirmed that at least 29 journalists died while covering the Syrian conflict. How did we arrive at that number?

Our research begins with the collection of possible cases to investigate. By closely following reports from news outlets, local journalist associations, press freedom groups, social media accounts, and human rights organizations, CPJ compiled a list of 159 names of potential cases where journalists died covering the conflict this year. This means CPJ learns of a new potential killed journalist in Syria almost every other day.
Every case must then go through a rigorous research process to ensure it falls within our mandate: journalists killed as a direct result of their work. This year, less than 20 percent of the cases that we reviewed made it through that process.
The first step is to ensure the individual is a journalist. CPJ does not distinguish between professional and amateur journalists like some organizations. We also do not fixate on labels commonly used in the Syrian conflict such as "media activist" and "citizen journalist." Instead, we care only about what the individual was doing. Did he or she show a consistent effort in gathering, producing, and publicly disseminating the news? That's a journalist in our book.
Especially in highly polarized environments such as Syria, so-called journalistic objectivity does not factor into our decision whether to consider an individual a journalist. We have documented the killing of journalists in Syria from across the political spectrum, including those employed by pro-government and opposition outlets. We draw the line at direct incitement to violence or participation in violence.
But not every journalist falls within our mandate. The second step is to confirm the journalist died as a direct result of his or her work. In Syria, where more than 75 percent of journalists have been killed as a result of crossfire, that task is usually straightforward. It becomes much more difficult in cases where journalists were targeted individually. In those cases, CPJ looks for a motive that would link the murder with the individual's work.
All this can admittedly lead to what can only be described as arbitrary categorization in the chaotic brutality of war. Take for example the case of Syrian photographer Murhaf al-Modahi, who contributed to Agence France-Presse. He survived countless shells and bullets on duty, only to be killed by a rocket attack while returning home from a family party. We therefore did not include him in our list of journalists killed for their work--even though his death is no less tragic.
Even in a perfect reporting environment, our strict mandate leads to difficult debates over what constitutes journalism. We're constantly rehashing questions with no easy answers. You tell me: just how many YouTube videos does a journalist make?
And Syria is anything but a perfect reporting environment. Rumor, exaggeration, and mistruth fill the vacuum of reliable information. As much as possible, CPJ sticks to a strict journalistic standard of confirming our information with two independent sources. That means we have great confidence in what we report, but it also means we sometimes cannot confirm cases for a lack of trustworthy information. For many of the 159 cases we reviewed this year, we could not corroborate vital pieces of information, and they remain under investigation today.
If the motives behind a killing are unclear, but it is possible that a journalist died for his or her work, CPJ classifies the case as "unconfirmed." For example, Abdullah Sobhi al-Ghazawi, a videographer for SMART News Agency, was killed on his way to cover clashes in the southern city of Daraa on November 8, 2013. His record of journalism is undeniable, with work documenting the intense fighting and shelling all around Daraa. But CPJ found photographs of al-Ghazawi with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder as he is filming. His colleague, Jawad al-Musalama, told CPJ that al-Ghazawi was only posing with the rifle, but we are still investigating to determine whether he was carrying a weapon the day he died; if so, this would undermine his protected status as a non-combatant under international law.
CPJ's combination of a strict mandate, difficult reporting environment, and stringent journalistic standards means that our data are conservative and likely underestimate the true number of journalists killed for their work in Syria. But our data are reliable precisely because of that conservatism.
Other organizations that do similar reporting, like Reporters Without Borders, SKeyes, and the Syrian Journalists Association, all do tremendous work. They face the same challenges and debate the same questions we do, even as they may differ in mandates and methods. As a result, we have all arrived at different numbers of journalists killed in Syria this year. But ultimately we all agree on one fact: Syria is the deadliest country in the world to work as a journalist.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, has cleared the way for the possible execution of a prince convicted of murdering a Saudi citizen. This follows the refusal by the victim’s father to pardon the killer.“Shariah shall be applied to all without exception,” said Prince Salman in a message to Interior Minister Prince Muhammad bin Naif.“There is no difference between big and small, rich and poor. The powerful are weak before God’s law until others get their rights from them while the weak are powerful until their ﻿rights are protected.”The directive further read: “Nobody is allowed to interfere with the judiciary’s decision. This is the tradition of this state. We are committed to following the Shariah.”According to a report carried by sabq.org, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah had issued a Royal Decree to pronounce capital punishment for the prince if the reconciliation bid failed. The governorate of the region was instructed to mediate between the victim’s relatives and the killer. But if they refused, the person shall be executed, the king said, stressing that the victim’s family should be under no pressure to win the pardon. Prince Salman’s message followed a statement from the victim’s father that he was not ready to pardon the killer and that the reconciliation committee was not fair to him. The father stated that he was not happy with the amount offered as blood money. The crown prince attached the father’s statement with his message to the interior minister. Saudis and expatriates applauded the crown prince’s stand, saying it gives them greater confidence in the Kingdom’s judiciary. “We are happy that the Shariah is enforced in the Kingdom,” one Saudi said, adding that it would ensure justice for all. He praised Saudi leaders for their strong commitment to the enforcement of Shariah laws.

On Saturday morning there were bodies located in Tarímbaro and the Michoacan capital the bodies of five men, who were beheaded ; persons to whom their assailants left a message ,speaking of a criminal group from Jalisco .

It was minutes before six o'clock , three of the deceased were was found by the police sitting in the arbor of the bridge known as " The Erandenis " which gives income motorists to the town of Tarímbaro .On one side of the bodies they found their heads, until now the victims are as unknown , in a gap near the site officers of the State Police they found a bloodstained knife, which is believed to have been used to behead the deceased .Ten minutes later, two more bodies were found , but now in the main square of Tenure Morelos, in the municipality of Morelia , the heads of these bodies were on a sidewalk street Francisco Juarez Mejia , right next to the place of the facts. In that area was also found narcoletreroRead more: http://www.elblogdelnarco.net/2013/12/ya-estamos-aqui-putos-michoacanos-atte.html # ixzz2ostWc7qKFollow us : @ MundoNarco on Twitter

RAMADI, Iraq: Iraqi security forces arrested a prominent Sunni Muslim lawmaker and supporter of anti-government protests in a raid on his home in the western province of Anbar, sparking clashes in which at least five people were killed, police sources said. The violent arrest of Ahmed Al-Alwani is likely to inflame tensions in Sunni-dominated Anbar, where protesters have been demonstrating against what they see as marginalization of their sect by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government. Alwani belongs to the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc and has been a strong critic of Maliki and an influential figure in the protest movement.

Police sources said a two-hour firefight broke out on Saturday when bodyguards and members of Alwani’s tribe resisted police and army forces who went to arrest Alwani on charges of “terrorism” from his house in the center of the city of Ramadi. They said those killed in the fighting included three of Alwani’s bodyguards, his sister and his brother.“Army troops with police special forces were trying to arrest Alwani from his house, but fierce fighting erupted. Five bodies, including one woman, were taken to Falluja hospital,” one police source said. No members of Alwani’s family could immediately be reached to give their version of events. Parliament speaker Usama Al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, called the operation a “blatant violation” of Iraq’s constitution and a “dangerous precedent.”Lt. General Ali Ghaidan, commander of Iraqi ground forces, told state television that security forces had also tried to arrest Alwani’s brother Ali, whom he accused of involvement in attacks that killed Iraqi soldiers in Anbar. Ali was killed in the fighting, as well as one Iraqi soldier, Ghaidan said.“We treated Ahmed Al-Alwani well. We told him that we had a warrant for his arrest, and arrested him,” he said, adding that two of Alwani’s bodyguards were wounded.
Violence rising Violence in Iraq is at its worst levels since 2006-7, when tens of thousands of people were killed in fighting between Sunnis and Shiites. Bombings, shootings and suicide attacks, many staged by Al-Qaeda militants, are a near-daily occurrence. Saturday’s clashes may undermine Maliki’s efforts to put an end to the protests in Anbar ahead of April elections. In a statement on state television on Friday, Maliki said it would be the “last Friday” the protests and sit-ins would be allowed to continue. Many Sunnis in the region are likely to see the incident as another example of what they portray as a crackdown against minority Sunni leaders. In September last year, Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi, one of Iraq’s most prominent Sunni politicians, was sentenced to death in absentia for murders committed by sectarian death squads. Hashemi, who denies the charges, fled to Turkey. Finance Minister Rafie Al-Essawi’s bodyguards were arrested in December, sparking the Sunni protests. A raid on a protest camp in the northern town of Hawija in April sparked fighting that killed over 40 people. Hard-line Al-Qaeda-linked Sunni militants have since stepped up attacks against Iraq’s government and anyone seen as supporting it. One such attack in Anbar last week killed at least 18 Iraqi soldiers, including a military commander who oversaw the crackdown.

MOSCOW: A woman suicide bomber blew herself up in the entrance hall of a Russian train station on Sunday, killing at least 13 people in the second deadly attack in the space of three days as the country prepares to host the Winter Olympics. The state Investigative Committee said the bomber detonated her explosives in front of a metal detector just inside the main entrance of Volgograd station. Footage shown on TV showed a massive orange fireball filling the hall and smoke billowing out through shattered windows. Volgograd is a city of around 1 million people, about 430 miles (690 km) northeast of Sochi, where the Winter Olympics — a major prestige project for President Vladimir Putin — will open on Feb. 7. It lies close to Russia’s North Caucasus, a strip of mostly Muslim provinces plagued by near-daily violence in a long-running Islamist insurgency. Insurgent leader Doku Umarov, a Chechen warlord, urged militants in a video posted online in July to use “maximum force” to prevent Putin staging the Olympics. An attack by another woman suicide bomber killed seven people in Volgograd on Oct. 21. On Friday, a car bomb killed three people in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk, 270 km (170 miles) east of Sochi. A spokesman for Russian investigators said in a statement that at least 13 people died in Sunday’s blast while a health ministry spokesman told Rossiya-24 television that as many as 50 people were wounded. The station was busier than usual, with people traveling home for the New Year holidays. TV footage showed emergency services carrying out victims, with at least one body lying motionless on the ground.“I heard the blast and ran toward it,” a witness, Vladimir, told Rossiya-24. “I saw melted, twisted bits of metal, broken glass and bodies lying on the street.”Sunday’s attack was the deadliest to strike Russia’s heartland since January 2011, when insurgents killed 37 people at a Moscow airport

Homeless twitter friend ( Chris Lee ) who has Lupus and just lost her mother is looking for a home and a little help. She has two cats and will move to any other city if anyone could help her. You can contact her at the above twitter account .

The serenity of President Barack Obama's Hawaiian vacation was rattled a little on Saturday when demonstrators aired grievances against unmanned aircraft and other issues in a small protest zone near the first family's upscale rented house.
Returning from an early morning gym visit at nearby Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Obama's motorcade passed a few dozen protesters holding signs with slogans including "Drones: Unethical and Illegal," "U.S. Bases Out" and "Close Guantanamo Now." Others expressed their opposition to genetically modified foods.

It marked a second day of peaceful protest surrounding Obama, who is spending a two-week vacation in Kailua with wife Michelle, daughters Malia and Sasha, the first lady's mother, Marian Robinson, and the family's Portuguese Water Dogs, Bo and Sunny.

On Friday evening, as many as 27 protesters turned out to demonstrate against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact being negotiated between the United States and several Asian and South American countries.

Opponents of TPP say the agreement is being written to benefit large multinational corporations.

"Other than a friendly 'shaka sign' from the president as he drove by in his motorcade, we have not received a formal response from the White House," said Mike Hasselle of the MoveOn Honolulu Council, one of the organizers of the action.

Obama has received mostly a warm reception in and around Honolulu, where he was born and spent much of his boyhood.

The unrest followed nationwide repression of Islamist protests on Friday after the military-installed government listed the Brotherhood, the movement of deposed president Muhammad Mursi, as a terrorist organization.A hospital official said a 19-year-old student was shot dead in the clashes at the Al-Azhar University campus, where pro-Mursi students have regularly staged protests since his overthrow by the army in July.

The students entered the commerce faculty during an exam and set it alight, before police burst into the campus and fired tear gas.A police official said 60 of the students were arrested after the fire on the first two floors of the building was brought under control.The violence comes a day after five people were killed in clashes across Egypt, according to a health ministry tally on Saturday, as police stamped out Brotherhood demonstrations.The interior ministry said 265 protesters were arrested.Police also fired tear gas at students in Zagazig university north of Cairo on Saturday, security officials said.And elsewhere in Cairo, police said they defused a bomb found on a bus days after four people were wounded when an explosive went off next to another bus.The military-installed government has banned protests by Brotherhood members demanding Mursi’s reinstatement, after listing the movement as a terrorist organization this week.The designation carries harsh penalties, with Brotherhood leaders facing possible death sentences and protesters looking at up to five years in prison.The movement has held near-daily protests since the military ousted Mursi on July 3, despite a crackdown that has killed more than 1,000 people, mainly Islamists, and imprisoned thousands.It was listed as a terrorist group in a drastic escalation of the months-long crackdown after a suicide bombing killed 15 people in police headquarters north of Cairo on Tuesday.The attack was claimed by an Al-Qaeda-inspired group that has led attacks on the military and police and in the restive Sinai peninsula, and denounced by the Brotherhood.Five people were also wounded in a bomb that targeted a bus in Cairo on Thursday.On Friday, the Brotherhood, which had dominated elections following the overthrow of strongman Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, said it would remain committed to peaceful protests.“The Muslim Brotherhood declares it is innocent of any violent incident that has or will be committed,” the Islamists said in a statement.The interim government has decapitated the 85-year-old movement since Mursi’s overthrow, imprisoning him and most of the movement’s leadership and putting them on trial.It has also sought to quell a surge in attacks in the Sinai that has killed more than 100 soldiers and policemen, as bombings and shootings spill over into mainland Egypt.Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, the group that claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s police headquarters attack, had tried to assassinate the interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim in a suicide car bombing outside his home in Cairo in September.The militant group has criticized the Brotherhood for its style of electoral politics, but authorities say the movement has links with militant groups, without offering proof.Mursi himself and top Brotherhood leaders will face trial with top Brotherhood leaders for allegedly colluding with militants to carry out attacks.Mursi, Egypt’s democratically elected president, had ruled for one turbulent year before the military overthrew him, following mass protests demanding his resignation